DESCRIPTION (provided by investigator): Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the leading cause of chronic liver diseases such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, and liver transplantation worldwide. The co-infection of HCV with other viruses (e.g. HIV) is becoming greater concern due to difficulties in the treatment of infected patients. At present, HCV-specific drugs or vaccines are not available. The general antiviral drugs have shown limited success and there is an urgent need for anti-HCV drugs and vaccines. Using a simple, inexpensive and efficient protein immobilization technology, we have proposed to develop prototype HCV protein microarrays during the Phase I studies. To develop the viral microarray, we have planned to utilize our unique AviTag-BirA biotinylation system for immobilization of the HCV proteomes representing different genotypes on the solid supports. The feasibility of printing HCV microarrays will lead to the commercialization of a variety of protein microarrays that will contain proteomes of several viral and bacterial agents. These microarrays have potential use in high throughput screening of drugs, and determination of infections and co-infections. The microarrays can also be used to study efficacy of putative vaccines and viral pathogenesis. [unreadable] [unreadable]